Stranica 131 [131]
THE WHITE SNAKE. 95
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delivered us." He rode on, and after a while he heard a small
voice come up from the sand underneath his horse’s feet. He
listened, and understood how an ant-king was complaining,
“ If only these men would keep off, with their great awk¬
ward beasts ! here comes this stupid horse treading down my
people with his hard hoofs!”
The man then turned his horse to the side-path, and the
ant-king called out to him,
“ We will remember and reward thee !”
The path led him through a wood, and there he saw a
father-raven and mother-raven standing by their nest and
throwing their young ones out.
“ Off with you! young gallows-birds!” cried they; " we
cannot stuff you any more; you are big enough to fend for
yourselves!” The poor young ravens lay on the ground,
. fluttering, and beating the air with their pinions, and crying,
“We are poor helpless things, we cannot fend for our¬
selves, we cannot even fly! we can only die of hunger!”
; Then the kind young man dismounted, killed his horse
, with his dagger, and left it to the young ravens for food.
They came hopping up, feasted away at it, and cried,
! “We will remember and reward thee! ” |
, So now he had to use his own legs, and when he had
. gone a long way he came to a great town. ‘There was much
. noise and thronging in the streets, and there came a man on
_ a horse, who proclaimed,
“That the King’s daughter seeks a husband, but he who
. wishes to marry her must perform a difficult task, and if he
. cannot carry it through successfully, he must lose his life.”
: Many had already tried, but had lost their lives, in vain.
. The young man, when he saw the Kings daughter, was so
, dazzled by her great beauty, that he forgot all danger, went to
, the King and offered himself as a wooer.
| Then he was led to the sea-side, and a gold ring was
_ thrown into the water before his eyes. Then the King told
. him that he must fetch the ring up again from the bottom of
. the sea, saying,
: “If you come back without it, you shall be put under
the waves again and again until you are drowned.”
| Every one pitied the handsome young man, but they went,